I’ve always liked Roger Ebert, but I just read something he posted on his online journal that has made me admire and respect him: Hunt Not the Snark but the Snarker
In this condemnation of the lazy art of snarking, here is a jewel of a quote: "You can win listeners by writing something worth reading, but you can win them more easily by snarking."
I rarely post something on GroovyMojo.com that merely points to something else, but this is a message that I strongly believe needs to be spread. Criticizing something that needs to be criticized is one thing, but snarking simply because it’s funny to tear something down without trying to also make an improvement, that’s not good. And in the blogosphere it’s become the norm. It’s also the main reason I stopped reading the otherwise interesting i09.com Sci-Fi blog. 90% snark vs. 10% useful information just doesn’t digest well for me.
This is a challenge I put out to the whole Internet: Dare to be positive. If you’re snarking just because everyone else is, because you think that’s the only way to be cool, then you’re just a fucking sheep plodding with the flock.
